The Heart Brings You Hope
by Blaze of the Summer Sun
Summary: A devastating plague has struck the Ice Kingdom and Lynx is determined to find a cure. But when she, Snowfall, and Hailstorm set out on a quest to save their tribe, their journey takes them all the way across the continent to Jade Mountain, where Lynx may end up finding something more. [Set after Talons of Power]
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Lynx soared high over the mountains, seeking peace in the feeling of the cold air beneath her wings. The Ice Kingdom was always beautiful, but especially so at this time of day; the light of the setting sun glittered pink and gold off every shining surface, casting a rosy hue on her entire world. Taking in the lovely sights around her, Lynx could breathe easier. _Things will get better soon enough,_ she reassured herself. _A world this beautiful couldn't be cruel enough to let us keep suffering much longer. We aren't used to dealing with sickness; that's why no one's figured out the cure yet. But there is one, and we'll find it. Soon._

The IceWing dragonet still couldn't believe how quickly the plague had descended on them. Queen Glacier was the first one to get sick; she'd started coughing and showing signs of fever four days ago. Since then, the disease had spread quicker than a rumor, and now most of the noble IceWings suffered from at least one of the symptoms. Lynx was lucky; since the dragonets had more contact with each other than with the adult dragons and extra care had been taken to distance them from those who were ill, most of them were still healthy. Only Opal and Sleet had been unfortunate enough to catch the plague before they'd realized how it spread.

Now all the sick dragons stayed as far from the dragonets as they could, and since almost all the adults in the palace were ill, the young ones were mostly left to their own devices. The training rituals ceased, the hunting parties were forgotten, and their tightly structured lives crumbled apart as all attention became focused on curing the disease.

 _Maybe I should hunt something while I'm out,_ Lynx mused. _That's not what I came out here to do, and I know the other dragonets can hunt for themselves, but bringing back a big bear or walrus might boost morale. I know I'd be really cheerful if someone else brought me food._ Maybe she couldn't do anything to find a cure or stop the plague from spreading, but hunting was definitely within her power. _I'll see what I can find,_ she decided. _If no one else wants my catch, I can always eat it myself._

Angling her speckled wings to catch the breeze, Lynx moved out farther toward the sea. Most of the really good prey lived near the water, which was something she'd learned quickly as a young dragonet. Every time the older dragons sent the young ones out for a test, she would fly to the coast as fast as her wings would carry her, and there was almost always something waiting for her there. Time and time again, she would impress her elders with her catches, which allowed her to climb the ranks quickly. It was how she'd earned her second-place spot, and working hard had let her keep it.

Now she caught sight of a polar bear, moving carefully along the edge of the ice in search of its own prey. It was looking down at the water instead of up at the sky, a fatal mistake in a dragon's world. Lynx swooped down to kill it, ending its life as swiftly and painlessly as possible with a strike to the back of the neck.

 _Wow, this one's bigger than normal,_ she realized as found herself straining to lift the carcass into the sky. It took a few tries to get going, but she managed it, and spent the rest of the flight home feeling triumphant. _I can't wait to see how happy everyone will be when I bring this in,_ she thought. _The Great Ice Dragon knows we could all use something to celebrate about._

Shrill voices greeted her ears as Lynx soared in through one of the palace windows. The room she'd entered was near the base of the dragonets' residential tower, where the young IceWings usually gathered to study or socialize, depending on how busy or strict their days had been. Now that the adults weren't hovering over their shoulders all the time, searching for flaws in their perfection, the dragonets were more lax in their discipline than they usually were. The youngest two were tussling over the bones of a rabbit, each complaining loudly when the other took them away.

"I had them first!" Crevice shouted. "Give them back!"

"You don't have them anymore!" Freeze shouted back gleefully. "They're mine now and you can't make me give them up." She marched away from her brother, dragging the bones with her.

"Come on, now," Lynx said. The two dragonets turned to look at her, surprised. She shoved the bear she'd caught in front of her, sitting back and watching in satisfaction as they both gave delighted gasps and came running over toward her. "See? There's nothing to fight about," she said. "Plenty of food for both of you."

Freeze and Crevice both dug into their meal, all arguments forgotten. It was odd how quickly the two had adjusted to the lack of structure caused by the adults' absence. The older dragonets tried to keep up the authority system, greeting each other with the customary phrases suited to their rankings, but as soon as the formality began to slip away from them, the younger ones noticed it and became bold. Now they dared to wrestle and argue like lower-born dragonets instead of pushing down their anger or hiding it behind the impossibly calm masks the adults always forced them to wear.

Lynx didn't mind it. She had come from a family of minor nobles, working hard to earn her place in the palace, and she still remembered what it was like to live alongside the peasantry. Everything was a lot less formal and rigid, and she could see why the little dragonets preferred it over their normal lives. But she knew they would be in for a rude awakening when the plague ended and the adults came back, ready to resume their disciplined lives as though nothing had happened.

"I see you calmed the beasts," Snowfall snorted. Lynx looked up to see the IceWing princess (and the only dragonet who outclassed her in the rankings) standing in the doorway. She looked tired and irritable, her tail flicking sharply from side to side. "They wouldn't listen to me when I tried to shut them up earlier."

Lynx felt her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. _They must be getting_ really _rebellious now. I've never seen them dare disobey Snowfall._ "Maybe you should try being nicer," she suggested. "That usually works for me."

"I shouldn't have to be," the princess snapped. "I'm at the top of the rankings, and there are dozens of dragonets between me and them. They should listen to every word I say!"

"Why?" Freeze piped up cheekily, peering at them over the back of the bear with wide blue eyes.

"Because that's the way it _is,_ " Snowfall growled.

"Not anymore," Crevice said, shrugging.

"Maybe not right _now_ ," Lynx said carefully, "but everything will go back to normal once all the sick dragons get better. So even while they're gone, we should live by the same rules as always. Once you start being rude and naughty, you're not going to want to go back to being good."

"That's because this way's better," Crevice said, nodding smugly.

"The adults disagree," Lynx said. "And if you do bad things when they're around, they're going to punish you. They'll make you stand in the warrior stance for hours until all your muscles are sore, and they'll make sure you never get high enough in the rankings to be able to boss everybody around the way Snowfall does."

The princess glared at her as the dragonets burst into fits of giggles.

 _Sorry,_ she mouthed. Although she frequently teased Snowfall and didn't normally regret it, the other dragonet looked extremely weary at the moment, and Lynx figured that provoking her wasn't the kindest thing to do. The princess shrugged half-heartedly in response as if to say, _don't worry about it._

"I'll be the bossiest dragon in the tribe," Freeze said, lifting her chin in a regal pose. The effect was somewhat undermined by the polar bear fur sticking to the edges of her face. "Not even Crevice will dare disobey me."

"You'll be royal," Crevice said, nodding solemnly. "Her Majesty, Queen Furface."

"Hey!" Freeze protested as her brother crumpled to the ground, laughing. "You'll pay for that, Commander Crookedspikes!" She lunged at him and he ran around to the other side of the bear to hide from her, shrieking all the while.

"All right, now you're getting really loud. Go eat your bear and leave us in peace," Lynx told the younger dragonets, shooing them away with her wings. To her great relief, they obeyed without protest, their bellies too full for a real fight. Snowfall was leaning against the doorway now in an uncharacteristically sloppy posture, her talons pressed against her forehead in an apparent effort to ward off a headache. As the dragonets moved out of earshot, she closed her eyes and sighed.

"Are you okay?" Lynx asked, concerned.

Slowly, Snowfall shook her head.

"Was it news from Hailstorm?" Lynx asked tentatively. Because he had recently turned seven, the older dragon was allowed to visit the sick, and he'd gotten into the habit of stopping by their tower to bring them updates whenever he heard anything new.

The princess sighed again. "It's my mother. Hailstorm told me…" She paused and swallowed hard, then opened her eyes and met Lynx's gaze. "He told me that she died."

Lynx's heart plummeted. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she whispered, reaching forward to take Snowfall's talons in hers. She'd known that Queen Glacier was sick, but she hadn't realized just how ill she was. "When did it happen?"

"Yesterday," Snowfall said, clearing her throat. "Hailstorm said she was doing okay in the morning, but sometime during the day she took a sudden turn for the worse and then…" She raised her wings and let them drop in a hopeless gesture.

Lynx felt awful. She hated seeing other dragons feel sad. Sometimes she could cheer them up, but death was something that could never be healed with a few words and a smile. It took time, and often a lot of crying and grieving along the way.

"I know anything I say will probably make it worse," she ventured, "but if there's ever anything I can do to help you, just let me know, okay?" She knew Snowfall wouldn't appreciate a hug or any other sentimental reassurances, but she had to try something.

"You can't," the princess said, turning her face away. "There's nothing anyone can say or do that will bring her back. But…thanks."

They stood in silence for a while, which gave Lynx a chance to think. _If dragons are dying that fast from the plague… what does it mean for our tribe? Is everyone who's sick going to perish before we find a cure? Are we going to lose our entire nobility? Our entire tribe?_

 _I can't let that happen,_ she thought.

"Hey Snowfall?" she asked. "When you talked to Hailstorm earlier, did he say whether or not he was planning to come back later tonight?"

"I think so," her friend replied.

"Good," Lynx said decisively, "because I'm calling a meeting in my room. When Hailstorm gets back, can you bring him and come?"

Snowfall narrowed her eyes, and Lynx half-expected her to complain about a lower-ranked dragonet telling her what to do. But when the princess spoke again, all she said was, "Why?"

"I don't know if there's anything we can do about the plague, but if there is, we're going to find out what it is and do it," Lynx said. "I'll look through every scroll I own and see if our tribe has ever dealt with anything like this before. I want you two to bring ideas."

The older IceWing laughed bitterly. "Not sure how well that'll work out."

"Well, it's better than doing nothing," Lynx said firmly. "Come on, can't we at least give it a try?"

Snowfall rolled her eyes. "I think it'll be a waste of time," she grumbled. "But I suppose."

Lynx gave her a brilliant smile. "Thanks," she said, heading for the stairway that led up into the higher levels of the tower. There were a lot of scrolls in her room, and if she wanted to be finished looking through them all by the time the other two came to meet her, she'd better start now.

* * *

 **A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. If you liked it or have some suggestions to offer, please review! Any and all feedback is welcomed and greatly appreciated. If you like my writing style and want to read more of it, please check out my other Wings of Fire fanfiction, _Wings of Spirit._ Until next time!**

 **-Blaze**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire.**

* * *

Chapter Two

"No, not you," Lynx muttered, tossing yet another scroll aside. The shelf in the corner of her room was starting to look empty, and she still hadn't found a single mention of illness in the Ice Kingdom. "I mean, it's a good thing we're always so healthy, but come on. We've never ever gotten sick before? Not once in the five thousand plus years since the tribe was founded?"

She picked up another scroll, letting out a groan of frustration when she saw its title. _The Lost Continent and Other Myths._ "Why?" she asked herself. "Why do you read so much fiction? What about history scrolls? I'm sure those are lovely and interesting, too."

Sighing, Lynx put the mythology scroll aside and reached for another one. "Nope, these are my class notes." Only she would write such meticulously neat notes that she could mistake them for officially printed scrolls. She smiled when she noticed the somewhat hastier writing scribbled in the margins. She'd obviously been passing notes with someone. The white dragonet leaned in closer to see who it was.

The familiar handwriting pierced her heart like a falling icicle. "Oh, Winter," she sighed. She'd clearly been trying to convince him to talk to her in the middle of a boring lesson, but he'd been too anxious about the rankings to oblige, and all his messages had been trying to get her to stop sliding her scroll over to him and nudging him with her pen.

Lynx missed the prince terribly. She understood why Hailstorm had gone through with the Diamond Trial and didn't even blame him, but she hated the fact that Winter had had to die so that his brother could live. Of course, Hailstorm could have spent the rest of his days in the lower ranks of the nobility, but being a leader was who he was, and anything less would have killed him inside. And if Winter had won the Trial, Hailstorm would've been the one who died, which really wasn't any better.

Lynx curled her claws around the edges of the scroll, trying not to let the sadness overwhelm her. "Three more scrolls," she reminded herself. "There better be something helpful in at least one of them."

As she discarded the spool of paper she had been holding and began skimming through another one, she heard a knock at the door. "Come in," she called absentmindedly, not looking up from her task.

"I heard your voice," Snowfall said, coming over to join her. The moon globe Lynx had picked after the sun finished setting cast their shadows on the floor in front of them; she watched the princess's dark copy nod its head over the edge of the paper in the customary greeting. "Who were you talking to?"

"Myself," Lynx said, nodding back without pausing her reading.

"Not happy with how your search is going?"

"You know me too well."

"I still don't understand why you do that when you're stressed," Snowfall said, wrinkling her snout. "Doesn't hearing more noise make it harder to concentrate?"

Lynx shook her head. "It helps me think. My thoughts get too jumbled if I don't straighten them out into actual sentences. And hearing them out loud helps me catch myself when I'm not making sense."

A third shadow moved across the floor to join theirs, which finally got Lynx's full attention. She looked up to see Hailstorm standing beside Snowfall, the two of them glittering in the moon globe's light. She peered more closely at him, wondering if she was imagining the dark circles under his eyes.

"Hey," she said, bowing her head briefly to the older dragon. He gave her the smallest of nods in return. "How's life been treating you?"

"Not well," Hailstorm replied, his voice hoarse.

Lynx stared at him, feeling her heart sink lower in her chest. She recognized that rough tinge to his voice. It was the same one she'd heard from Opal and Sleet just hours before they'd been quarantined. "You've caught the plague," she whispered, aghast.

Hailstorm opened his mouth to speak, but was forced to cover his face with one wing as a bout of coughing struck him. His entire body shook with the force of it, and the sound was so awful that Lynx wanted to cover her ears and hide until it was over.

She turned on Snowfall. "Why didn't you tell me he was sick?" she demanded. "You must have noticed it when you saw him earlier."

"What good would it have done?" the princess countered. "It's not like we can do anything about it." She wrapped her wings around herself. "Knowing just how many dragons are sick is only going to make everything worse."

Lynx felt a nauseating mixture of panic and dread well up inside her, almost suffocating her with its intensity. _No one else can die! Especially not Hailstorm. If he dies, Winter's death will have been for nothing and I don't even know what that'll do to me._ She forced herself to take deep breaths, trying to soothe the ache in her chest, but it just wasn't going away.

"Calm down," Snowfall said. "Flipping out isn't going to help anyone."

"You're right," Lynx said, grasping onto the royal dragonet's words. "We've got to do something else."

"We _can't_ do anything," Snowfall snapped irritably. "No one knows what the cure is, or even _if_ there's a cure, and the best thing we can do is stay far away from the sick dragons in the hopes that we won't catch the plague, too."

"She's right," Hailstorm rasped. "I wouldn't have gotten sick if I hadn't been spending so much time watching over my parents. After this, I'm going to join the dragons in quarantine so I don't spread the plague any further."

"But if none of them are getting any better, what's the point?" Lynx asked. "How are you going to recover if everyone around you is sick?"

"I don't know," Hailstorm admitted. "But that's better than getting the rest of the tribe sick."

"There must be something else we can do," Lynx insisted. As she spoke, a fuzzy memory popped into her head, slipping and sliding in her grasp like a particularly stubborn fish. "Hold on. I think I remember something I read about sickness once." She rubbed her temples in a vain attempt to push the memory more firmly into her head. "But it wasn't in any of these scrolls, so I can't quote it exactly."

"Just tell us what you remember," Snowfall said impatiently.

"I think it was something about other dragons getting sick when they came to the Ice Kingdom," Lynx said. "It wasn't just hypothermia. Even when they didn't get seriously damaged by the cold, it somehow made it harder for them to stay healthy."

"And how exactly is that supposed to be helpful?" Snowfall inquired.

"Well, I was thinking that maybe the cold is making it harder for us to recover," Lynx said. "So if the sick dragons were to leave the Ice Kingdom…"

"But where would we go?" Hailstorm asked, clearing his throat as his voice cracked.

"I'm not sure." Lynx racked her brains. "Maybe we could go to one of the other tribes. Now that the war is over, they might be willing to help us out." _No one wants to see any more death and destruction._

"And take a chance that their dragons might get sick?" Snowfall pointed out. "Not likely."

"Besides, how would we convince everyone to leave our kingdom?" Hailstorm asked. "And how do we even know that it'll help? We've never faced anything like this before. Leaving the cold might make things better for other dragons, but it might make things worse for us. Not to mention that it would be terribly humiliating to go crawling to another tribe for help," he added with a snort.

"That's true," Lynx said. "But think about it. Would you rather be alive and embarrassed or dead?" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted their harshness, but if it convinced the others that they had to try _something_ , it would be worth it.

Snowfall and Hailstorm exchanged a glance. "Alive," they both muttered.

"Good," Lynx said. "Glad we're all on the same length of the scroll."

"But they still might not help us," Hailstorm argued. "Even though Queen Glacier was all for peace, she still wouldn't have taken in sick dragons if it meant risking our own tribe. Regardless of personal feelings, it's a leader's duty to protect her dragons."

"Right. There's still that problem." Lynx thought about it for a while. "In all the stories I've read, herbs are what dragons use to treat sickness. So maybe we could go somewhere where a lot of herbs grow and try to figure it out for ourselves. That way we wouldn't get anyone else sick in the process."

"But who's going to volunteer to be a test subject?" Snowfall asked. "Plants don't always help. Some could be poisonous. I'm sorry Lynx, but this idea has too many holes in it."

"All right," the other dragonet replied staunchly. "I'll come up with another one."

Snowfall and Hailstorm both looked tempted to roll their eyes, but to their credit, neither of them did. "I think the best thing to do would be to stay here," Hailstorm said after a few moments of silence. "Have a little faith in our tribe, Lynx. We haven't figured out how to deal with the plague yet, but we will. Besides, our fellow IceWings need us here."

"We _might_ figure it out even if we all stay here," Lynx argued. _Optimism aside,_ she thought, _it's time to start being practical._ "But there's no guarantee. I'm not going to take any risks. If there's even the slightest chance that all those sick dragons are going to die without my help, then I'm going to do something to try to save them." She met Hailstorm's gaze. "Think about your brother. He died so that you could have the best chance at a happy life. If anything happens to you, his sacrifice would be wasted."

Hailstorm averted his eyes, glancing at the floor instead of her face. "I know, I owe Winter a lot. But I've been gone from the tribe for a long time. I really can't afford to leave again."

Lynx barely suppressed a frustrated growl. "Guys," she said. "I thought you wanted to help me."

"I do. But I won't help you do anything until you have a good plan," Snowfall said stubbornly.

The other dragonet sighed. "All right," she said, temporarily accepting defeat. "I'll keep thinking. In the meantime," she added, gesturing at the scrolls scattered all around her room, "you two can help me clean up this mess."

"We didn't make it," Hailstorm said, looking down his snout at her.

"Come on, please?" Lynx wheedled.

Snowfall heaved an exaggerated sigh. "Fine, I'll help."

The two dragonets began cleaning up, and after a moment of hesitation, Hailstorm joined in. He and Snowfall tried to put the scrolls wherever they found room on the shelf, but Lynx insisted on organizing everything the way it had been before. "Read me the titles," she told her friends. "I'll put them all back where they belong."

She was really quite lucky that Snowfall and Hailstorm liked her enough to listen to her even though her ranking was lower than either of theirs. It was a lot more fun when none of them worried about who was in charge and who had to be extra polite and careful not to step on the others' claws. The adults never seemed to understand that, though, so even the most closely ranked dragonets kept up the formalities whenever they were in public or training.

 _It's a shame it has to be like that,_ Lynx mused as she worked. _But that's just the way it is._

" _Scavengers and Their Natural Habitats_ ," Hailstorm read aloud, holding up the scroll in question and snapping her out of her thoughts. "Where does this one go?" He paused briefly to cough into his wing, but straightened up before either of the others could ask him if he was okay.

"Um, right here on the end," Lynx said, taking the scroll carefully in her claws and inserting it beside the rest of her science collection. Now all of that particular series was back in place. She stepped back to admire them all lined up neatly on the shelf.

Snowfall tapped her on the shoulder. "Stop slacking off. You're not done yet. I have _The Diaries of Frostbite_ here."

"Oh, that's a good one," Lynx said, taking it and placing it among the rest of her favorites. These scrolls looked the shabbiest, but that was because they were the ones she read over and over until the paper started to crinkle at the edges. _The wood could use a fresh coat of polish, though_ , she noted.

" _The Worldshaper_?" Hailstorm offered.

"That one's fantasy," Lynx replied, pointing to another shelf. "Can you put it back for me? I can't really reach all the way over there. It should go between _The Curse of the Stars_ and _Light of Day_."

"Three moons, Lynx," Snowfall said, somehow looking both exasperated and impressed. "How many scrolls do you have?"

"A lot."

"Obviously," the princess snorted.

"If we're not done soon, I'm leaving," Hailstorm said, pausing to rub his forehead with one palm.

Lynx laughed. "Don't worry, we're almost done. Just a couple more."

Snowfall picked up one of the remaining few and eyed it skeptically. "Are scrolls even that interesting?" she asked. "There are so many better things to do with your time. Wouldn't you rather be out flying than reading… _The Dragonets of Destiny_?"

Lynx had been holding another scroll, but at her friend's words, her talons jerked reflexively, sending the wood-and-paper spool clattering to the ground. "That's it!" she exclaimed.

Snowfall winced at her volume. "What is?"

"We can go to Jade Mountain for help," she explained. "The Dragonets of Destiny founded it, and they're all about peace and helping other dragons. They'd never turn away anyone in need."

Hailstorm fiddled with the scroll in his claws. "That's actually not a bad idea," he admitted.

Snowfall scowled. "Lynx, I don't know why you keep misunderstanding me. The main problem with all your ideas is that we _can't leave_. The tribe needs us. Even if you and Hailstorm could get away with traveling all the way across the continent to beg for help, I can't. Now that my mother is dead, I'm probably going to have to lead the tribe in her place."

"Oh," Lynx said, taken aback. She'd forgotten that Queen Glacier's death had left the tribe without a ruler. Suddenly, Snowfall's weariness made a new kind of sense. _Not only does she have to cope with her mother's death, but she also has to deal with the possibility of being suddenly burdened with a lot more responsibility. Poor Snowfall. And she's not even seven years old yet._

"I'm not just being pessimistic," Snowfall said a bit more gently. "I'm trying to be responsible. Leaving now would be all kinds of reckless and immature."

"…But how can you stay here?" Lynx asked. "Isn't it worse for your tribe if you get sick? Shouldn't you do everything you can to make sure that you'll be strong enough to lead?"

Snowfall sighed. "That's a good point, too," she admitted. "I don't know what to do."

The princess's doubt and worry were clearer in that moment than ever. Lynx could see how conflicted her friend was, how lost she felt without anyone to guide her, how close she was to falling apart, and how hard she was trying to hide it all. _Just hold yourself together a little while longer,_ Lynx willed the other dragonet. _We can make it._

"We should go," Hailstorm said unexpectedly. "The tribe will forgive anything if we do it out of loyalty." His eyes flickered to the ground. "I think Winter proved that when he brought me home. He worked with dragons from other tribes, including a NightWing, but it was all to save me. The adults saw that he was being as honorable as he knew how to be and they rewarded him for it. If we leave the tribe to save them from the plague, we'll be doing the same thing."

Snowfall looked uncertain. "You really think this is a good idea, Hailstorm?"

"Well," the older dragon said awkwardly, "I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it a _good_ idea, but it's the best one we have. And I know that none of us want to be reckless, but we're pressed for time. If we don't do something soon, it might be too late."

"He's right," Lynx said, surprised but encouraged by his change of heart. "Come on, Snowfall. If we stay here, we won't be able to do anything. But if we go to Jade Mountain, we stand a chance of making a difference. It's risky, sure, but how are we supposed to accomplish anything if we don't even try?"

Snowfall hesitated for a moment. Then she gave an almost imperceptible nod. "All right," she said. "We'll go to Jade Mountain."

"Good," Lynx said, feeling a wave of relief wash over her. _Finally, we're doing something._ "We should leave as soon as possible," she told the others. "The sooner we go, the faster we can get home to our tribe. And we can't exactly afford to sit around waiting."

"You're right," Snowfall sighed. "Tonight, then?"

Lynx looked at both of her friends in turn. "Tonight," she echoed.

* * *

 **A/N: And that concludes the second chapter! I hope you enjoyed it. This chapter was hard for me to write for some reason, so hopefully it turned out all right in the end. Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, favorited, or followed the first chapter. I really appreciate it!**

 **By the way, I don't know what age group most of my readers are in (since so many different people read Wings of Fire despite its being marketed as a children's series), so if you want more information about the age rating of this fanfiction, T, please visit my profile and read the paragraph I have posted there.**

 **Thank you again for your time and support!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Edit: I updated this chapter to fix a glaring error in one of the last few paragraphs. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire or any of its characters.**

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Chapter Three

Lynx paced back and forth in her room, searching for things she might need along her journey. She'd strapped a medium-sized leather pouch to her chest and put a few things inside, like a canister of water and a talonful of coins, but it still looked woefully empty. As she gazed down into all that unoccupied space, she was starting to realize just how unprepared she was for this mission. _But I don't have a choice. I have to go. I have to save my tribe._

All this double and triple checking was doing nothing to help her nerves. _I should just go,_ she thought. _If I need something else, I'll find it outside the kingdom. It's not like I'm trying to make a trip to one of the moons. There's going to be stuff all around me. Though if I'm going to be buying a lot of things, maybe I should grab more money._

After only a moment of hesitation, Lynx emptied her entire savings into the bag. _This quest is the most important thing I've ever done. If it's not worth spending my money on, I don't know what is._

Glancing one last time around her room, the young IceWing exited and headed down the stairs. She tried to walk as silently as possible, but her talons clicked on the ice no matter how carefully she stepped. She considered heading out a window and trying to fly down to the courtyard, where she'd arranged to meet up with the others, but then she'd have to soar over parts of the palace and she'd definitely be seen by what few guards remained.

So she continued down the stairs, wincing at every tap and scrape her claws made. Thankfully, no one poked their heads out of their rooms or came out to see what was going on, and she made it to the bottom unchallenged. She moved through the dark room at the base of the tower, guided toward the open air by the faint glimmer of light provided by the moon globe tree.

Snowfall and Hailstorm were both waiting for her, their faces cast into shadow by the light of the tree shining behind them. The darkness did nothing to hide their worry, which was evident in the tension in their wings and the bristling of the spikes on the backs of their necks.

"Ready, guys?" Lynx whispered.

The other two exchanged a glance. As their heads turned, Lynx caught sight of similar bags draped across their shoulders and chests. _Good, they're both prepared,_ she thought. _If I forgot anything, hopefully one of them will have it and be willing to share._

"I suppose so," Snowfall answered. Hailstorm only nodded.

Lynx eyed the prince with concern. Perhaps she was over-thinking things, but some part of her couldn't help but worry that his silence meant the pain in his throat was getting worse. Even more troubling was the fact that she knew he wouldn't say anything about how he felt if he could help it. A seasoned warrior and future commander like Hailstorm would never, ever complain while on a mission.

 _All the more reason we have to head out now,_ Lynx reminded herself. "All right," she said to the others in a low voice. "Which way should we go? Obviously we need to head south, but we have to get out of the palace unnoticed first."

"Hmm, that is going to be a problem," Snowfall mused. She looked up at the sky, which was well-lit by the three moons. "With one of the moons full and the other two almost halfway there, our scales are going to catch a lot of light and shine, making us stand out. The only thing I can think of would be to try to cover our scales somehow."

"But then we'll stand out against the snow because we aren't white anymore," Hailstorm pointed out hoarsely.

"True," Lynx acknowledged, flicking her tail back and forth as she thought. "Okay, stealth is probably not going to work. Maybe we could pretend we have a legitimate reason to go out. I mean, we do, because obviously we're saving lives here, but we can pretend it's authorized by someone in the tribe."

"We don't even know who's in charge now," Hailstorm argued. "No one's going to buy that."

"Okay," Lynx said, undaunted. "How about a distraction?"

"Like what? Throwing a few rocks out one of the windows and hoping all the guards come flocking over to investigate?" Snowfall asked snidely. "That's never going to work."

"No," the other dragonet said, an idea starting to form in her mind. "Maybe one of us can pretend we feel like having a midnight snack and check in with one of the guards on our way out to go hunting. While the guard's busy talking to that dragon, the other two can sneak by."

"Not bad, Lynx," Hailstorm admitted. "We'd have to be quick, but that should give us a bit of time."

Snowfall looked uncertain, but reluctantly agreed. "Who's going to be the distraction?" she asked.

"You are," Lynx offered. "You're the princess, probably the next queen. The guards will be much less likely to question your decisions or stop you than they would if it was me. And Hailstorm's sick, so they probably wouldn't let him go out alone."

"All right," Snowfall sighed.

"Wait," Lynx hissed as her friend opened her wings to fly away. As the princess paused, the speckled dragonet slipped Snowfall's pouch off and put it around her own neck. "I'll hold onto this for you," she said. "If any of the guards see this, it'll be obvious you're planning to be gone for quite a while."

"Good catch," Snowfall said, her eyebrows arching in surprise. "I wouldn't have thought of that."

"Good thing I did," Lynx said seriously.

"All right, I'm going now," the princess whispered, taking off and soaring toward the front gates. Hailstorm crept silently after her, keeping low to avoid casting too much of a shadow.

Lynx hesitated, looking back at the moon globe tree. When the three celestial bodies that orbited Pyrrhia were shining and reflecting off the ice, it was easy to see at night in her kingdom, but would it be darker in other places? She wasn't entirely sure, but… _It's better to be safe than sorry._ Reaching up, she plucked a moon globe off the tree and slipped it into her bag. Then she hurried after her friends.

Hailstorm was crouching beside the short outer wall that surrounded the palace when Lynx caught up to him. She pressed her belly to the snow and watched with him as Snowfall swooped confidently down to stand beside the guard positioned directly in front of the castle. They were too far away for Lynx to hear what they were saying, but the princess's posture was distinctly unruffled, indicating that she was playing her part well.

Lynx poked Hailstorm in the ribs to get his attention. _When should we go?_ she mouthed when he looked at her.

The older dragon craned his neck slightly to look at the princess. Following his gaze, Lynx saw that Snowfall had successfully engaged the guard in a conversation, but it was unclear how long it would last.

"Now," Hailstorm hissed in her ear.

Lynx glanced back at the guard anxiously as her friend climbed over the wall. Thankfully, he wasn't looking their way. She heard Hailstorm's talons thump lightly down on the snow on the other side.

"Come on," he whispered through the ice, the rasp in his voice evident even when he spoke at a low volume. "Hurry up! It doesn't take that long to tell someone you're going hunting."

Lynx compulsively glanced back again. Snowfall was moving past the guard, leaving him and their conversation behind. He was watching her go, but clearly Lynx was running out of time. Taking a deep breath, she jumped, landing on top of the wall. She fought for balance, afraid to open her wings in case the movement was enough to catch the guard's attention. Hailstorm hissed at her to come down and she clumsily pushed herself off the ice.

"Did he see you?" Hailstorm asked tightly.

Lynx shook her head. "I don't think so," she whispered, but she couldn't keep the hint of anxiety out of her tone. _What if he did see me?_ she worried. _What if I just messed this up and we can't get away?_

"Come on," Hailstorm said, bracing himself as he fought back a cough. "We have to meet up with Snowfall."

"Talons and teeth," Lynx cursed quietly. "We didn't arrange a meeting place."

"That's all right," Hailstorm replied. "She'll probably fly someplace out of view and wait for us there. If we hurry, we should be able to catch up to her pretty quickly."

Although they traveled as fast as they could, moving on the ground was painfully slow compared to flying. However, they were unwilling to travel by air for fear that their wings would catch the light and attract too much attention. Lynx itched to look back at the guard to see if he was watching, but she forced herself not to. _Freaking out over it won't help at all._

Once they crossed a rocky ridge, they figured it was safe to fly. They stayed low, but the cold night breeze helped calm Lynx's nerves, and by the time they spotted Snowfall in the distance, her optimism was starting to return. _That wasn't too bad,_ she thought. _It could have gone a lot worse._

Snowfall waited for them to catch up. "How did it go?" she asked by way of greeting.

"I think we were all right," Hailstorm said, glancing at Lynx.

"Yeah," Lynx said, deciding not to worry the others with the _what-ifs_ that had been spiraling around in her brain for the past hour. "I'm pretty sure he didn't see us." She slipped the extra pouch off her neck and handed it back to the princess.

"Well, even if he did, it's too late to stop us now," Snowfall said, taking the bag and strapping it around her own neck. Her expression was fierce. "We're already on our way. For better or worse, there's no turning back."

 _That sounds… ominous,_ Lynx thought. _Hopeful? I'm not sure which._

The three of them headed south, away from the palace they called home and toward the edge of their kingdom. Lynx was gripped with a strange mixture of fear and excitement. She'd never been outside the Ice Kingdom before, and although she had read stories set in other lands, she knew nothing could prepare her for truly being away from the cold and the snow she had known all her life. And she would be meeting dragons from other tribes! She'd get to see what they looked like in person and talk to them and experience for herself how different their lives were from hers.

She glanced at Hailstorm and Snowfall, who were flying on her right side. She couldn't help but wonder how they would deal with the journey. Like her, Snowfall had spent her entire life surrounded by ice walls and snow-colored dragons. The princess would also have the added difficulty of dealing with different reactions to her status than she was used to. Hailstorm had been outside the kingdom before, but he didn't exactly have good memories of his time away.

 _It'll be hard, but we'll manage,_ Lynx assured herself. _We've all experienced years of harsh training and punishments and expectations. We can handle anything if we have a little determination._

The Ice Kingdom blurred by beneath them as they traveled. The moons gradually made their arcs across the sky, looking almost as if they were traveling with the three young dragons. The constellations changed position above them as the hours wore on, like the night sky was a dark net that was being shifted to let the light through in different places.

As the milky light of predawn began to appear on the horizon, the Great Ice Cliff came into view ahead of them. The moonlight shining through the clouds gave it a hazy glow, and it stretched before them like a vast, ghostly snake. Lynx half-expected it to shoot icicle spears at them, recognizing that they were leaving without orders, but it allowed them to pass.

 _This is it,_ she thought, shivering. _We're really leaving._

Hailstorm stared down at the wall with the oddest expression on his face; Lynx couldn't even begin to fathom what he was thinking. Snowfall refused to look at the Cliff at all, staring straight ahead with a look of angry determination on her pale face.

Lynx glanced over her shoulder, feeling a thrill in her chest as she saw the Great Ice Cliff receding behind her. She'd spent so long in her kingdom that it had almost become its own world in her mind; leaving it now was like leaving Pyrrhia entirely, setting off to some new land where completely new dragons and experiences awaited her.

 _Snowfall was right,_ she thought. _There really is no turning back._

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 **A/N: Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review. Feedback and support are always greatly appreciated. :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire.**

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Chapter Four

They traveled for the rest of the night, the ice below them transitioning first to hard, cold tundra, then to glittering rock, and finally to desert sand. Lynx now felt she was officially in the SandWings' kingdom, which was an extremely difficult thought to process. In all her dreams of leaving home to visit other tribes, the desert dragons hadn't been on her list, not because they weren't fascinating, but because she'd heard that the Kingdom of Sand was baking hot and a miserable place for IceWings to be.

Surprisingly, it wasn't as hot as the stories made it out to be. In fact, there was a bit of a chill in the air. _Maybe it's because we're still close to the Ice Kingdom,_ Lynx reasoned. _Our land is the coldest and theirs is the hottest. I'm sure there's no clear dividing line between the two._

The sun was rising to their left, peeking through the mountains of the Sky Kingdom and sending rays of gold across their path. It was a beautiful sight, but also a stark reminder that she was away from home; there was no silver here to contrast with the fiery colors of morning, no ice echoing back the sky's light. Even so, she enjoyed it, in part because it was different. _What's the point of leaving home if the rest of the world is exactly the same? It's_ supposed _to be different. That's the reason you go out to see it._

Lynx tilted her wings to soar closer to her friends. "All right," she said. "It looks like we're flying right along the border between the Kingdom of Sand and the Sky Kingdom. Does anyone know if that's a good thing?"

Hailstorm frowned. "You didn't look at a map before we left?" he asked.

"No," Lynx told him, trying to remember why she hadn't. "I guess I thought I knew where Jade Mountain was. It's next to the ocean, right? Just outside the desert?"

"I think so," Snowfall said, her brow furrowed. "But I really don't know for sure."

Hailstorm let out a ragged sigh. "We're lost already, and we've barely started," he grumbled.

"No, we're not!" Lynx insisted. "We're all in agreement that it's at the bottom edge of the continent, right? So as long as we're heading south, we're going in the right direction."

"For now," Snowfall pointed out. "When we get closer, we're going to need more precise directions."

"Yeah, but that part of our journey is, like, days away," Lynx argued. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We'll figure something out when we get there."

"And _that's_ not likely to backfire on us," Snowfall said, with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

"Fine," the other dragonet said crossly. "I'll work something out by the end of the day. I've solved all our other problems so far, haven't I? Three moons, trust me a little."

They flew for another hour or so in silence. The sun climbed steadily toward its peak as they traveled, bringing with it not only daylight, but searing heat. _I guess that was why it was cold,_ Lynx thought as beads of sweat began to trickle down the side of her face and into her eyes, making them sting. _The sun wasn't fully up. Now that it is, the desert is going to get very hot very fast._

"By the Great Ice Dragon," Snowfall complained. "It feels like my scales are melting off. We should fly closer to the mountains and hope they cast some shade."

"Good idea," Lynx agreed. They all glided to their left, heading for the base of the towering stone peaks. But it was nearing midday, when the sun was directly above them, and there wasn't much shade to be found. Lynx felt as though she were being baked alive.

Hailstorm was breathing hard at his point, his eyes half-closed with exhaustion. His scales were flushed, bringing clouds of blue into his normally white face. "Can we stop to rest?" he croaked, swallowing hard. "I don't think… I can keep going much longer."

Lynx cast a worried glance around. "I don't know if there's anywhere we can take shelter," she said. "And sleeping out in the open would probably be terrible for you in this kind of heat."

"I think we passed a town a few miles back," Snowfall said. "We could go back there."

"But we don't have time to go back," Lynx protested. "We need to get as far as we can every day."

"But we don't know when we'll see another town," the princess argued. "And Hailstorm needs rest. If we keep pushing him, his sickness might get worse. And in that case, he would have been better off staying in the Ice Kingdom. If you want this journey to be worth it, we need to stop now."

"You're right," Lynx sighed. So, despite every part of her screaming that they were going the wrong way, they turned around and flew back the way they had come. Thankfully, Snowfall was right about the town, and they didn't have to go far before it came into view ahead of them.

It was a quaint little place, built on either side of a thin river with bridges crossing between the two sides of town. The buildings looked randomly constructed, all of them different shapes and sizes, but Lynx found that aspect of it delightfully strange. Even more exciting were the different types of dragons milling around; even from far away, she could see the brown of MudWings, the red and orange of SkyWings, and the unique pale brownish-yellow color of SandWings.

Hailstorm made a sound of surprise. "I know this place," he said. "Winter and I stopped here when he was bringing me back to the Ice Kingdom. It's called Possibility."

"I like that," Lynx said thoughtfully. "It sounds kind of poetic."

"So you'll know your way around, Hailstorm?" asked Snowfall, not one to pay as much attention to the ambiance of a place as to its layout and purpose. "At least enough to find a good place to rest?"

"I think so," the prince said. "There was also a doctor in town, a MudWing named Mayfly. I don't know if she'd be able to cure the plague, but she might be able to do something to treat its symptoms."

"There's a doctor from another tribe this close to the Ice Kingdom?" Lynx demanded. "Why didn't you mention her earlier?"

"The RainWing Winter was traveling with got hurt during their journey," Hailstorm explained. "They brought her here, but the doctor wasn't able to do much to help her. So I don't have very high expectations." Despite his weakened condition, he managed to look haughty. "Besides, she's a MudWing. She can't be very smart."

"Don't be mean," Lynx scolded. "If she can help us, it shouldn't matter at all what tribe she's from. And I've heard that stereotypes usually aren't true."

"They must be, though," Hailstorm said in a reasonable tone. "Where would they come from if they were completely false?"

"Maybe a hundred thousand years ago, _one_ IceWing knew _one_ MudWing who was a little on the slow side," Lynx acknowledged. "But that doesn't mean that all swamp dragons are incapable of being smart. You can't judge a dragon by her scales."

"Maybe you won't," the prince said. "But I certainly can if I want to, and you can't stop me."

"That is so closed-minded and stubborn," the speckled dragonet hissed.

Hailstorm shrugged. "So?"

"Stop it, you two," Snowfall snapped. The combination of the heat and her exhaustion seemed to be making her even more short-tempered than usual. "I'm sick of listening to you argue."

"Fine," Lynx said reluctantly, deciding to let it go for the time being. _I still can't believe Hailstorm right now,_ she thought. _We're going to dragons from other tribes in the hopes that they'll help us out of the goodness of their hearts, and he's not even_ trying _to let go of his preconceived notions about them._ She glanced at the prince, who seemed to have moved on from their conversation already. _Just you wait, Hailstorm,_ she vowed silently. _By the end of this journey, I will make you give the other tribes a chance._

There was no more time to dwell on the matter, however, as their destination was right ahead of them. They landed just outside the town and made their way in on foot. Lynx couldn't help but gaze around, wide-eyed, at all the different shops lining the cobblestone streets. Some were selling food, others supplies, and still others a variety of services, like repairing broken wares and constructing new buildings. Some shops looked a little dodgy, like the one with no lettering on the front and boarded-up windows, but for the most part it seemed to be a colorful, pleasant place.

 _Living here would be an adventure every day,_ Lynx thought, impressed by all the hustle and bustle that bordered on chaos, but somehow never quite crossed the line. _There's so much going on. And you never know who you'll meet,_ she added silently, watching a SandWing and a SkyWing encounter each other with something that looked like recognition on their differently-colored faces.

Soon enough, almost too soon for her curious eyes, they came to Mayfly's building. It was constructed from mostly sod, which seemed fitting for a MudWing's abode. _How does it stay up?_ Lynx wondered as they entered the shop, eyeing the walls with a mixture of interest and alarm. _Plants and dirt definitely don't seem as sturdy as ice. Then again, ice would melt here, so there's really no point in using it to build things._

Mayfly was standing behind a low counter when they entered. Lynx eyed the MudWing with fascination; she'd never seen a swamp dragon up close and personal before. Mayfly had deep brown scales that seemed to soak up the light around her, and her eyes were almost the same color, but had hints of gold in them. Her face was broader than any IceWing's, and her snout was almost flat in a way that looked exotic and oddly beautiful. However, the effect was somewhat ruined by her bad-tempered expression.

"More IceWings," she grumbled. Her eyes traveled over their group and came to rest on Hailstorm. "And you're the same one I kicked out of my shop about a week ago! Why did you come back?"

 _Kicked out?_ Lynx thought, not sure whether to feel amused or horrified. She glanced past Snowfall to look at the prince. _Hailstorm, what did you do?!_

Hailstorm had the grace to look sheepish. "I, um, I'm sorry for being disrespectful," he muttered. Lynx noted with some amusement that he was much politer when he was actually standing face-to-face with the dragon he had been all too willing to insult only moments before.

"You should be," Mayfly snorted. "Now tell me what you want or get out."

Snowfall stepped forward, probably planning to tell the MudWing what to do. _This isn't the Ice Kingdom,_ Lynx thought. _Her high ranking isn't going to get her anywhere, and no one's going to thank her for trying to order them around._ She moved forward quickly, getting in the princess's way to stop her from speaking and smiling as charmingly at the doctor as she could manage.

"I'm sorry about whatever my friend did the last time he was here," she said. "I'm sure he deeply regrets it and won't do anything like that ever again."

"Hmph," Mayfly said, glaring at Hailstorm once more before looking down at Lynx. "I appreciate the politer tone, but sweet talk won't get you far with me."

"Hailstorm is actually sick," Lynx said carefully, glancing at Snowfall. The princess nodded as if to say, _go on._ "We've never seen this kind of illness in the Ice Kingdom, so we decided to seek out other doctors with a bit more experience to see if they could help."

"Come over here," Mayfly instructed briskly, beckoning to Hailstorm. The prince obliged, albeit warily, as though he was worried she would swat him in the face. She walked slowly in a circle around him, inspecting him from horns to tail. "What symptoms is he showing?" she asked as she worked.

"Um, he's definitely coughing," Lynx said. "I think he has a fever, too, and overall, he's a lot weaker than he should be. I don't know if he has a sore throat. Do you, Hailstorm?"

"Yes," he said hoarsely.

Mayfly grasped Hailstorm by the chin, tilting his head back to look in his ears, eyes, and nose. "Open your mouth," she instructed. When he did, she peered into the back of his throat, making a _tsk_ noise to herself. It was difficult for Lynx to tell what she was thinking. Throughout the process, Hailstorm looked desperately uncomfortable, but he stood as still as a statue and let the doctor work.

"I've never seen this exact illness before, but I can certainly treat some of its effects," Mayfly said at last. She moved over toward the wall, where shelves were lined neatly with a variety of herbs and tinctures. Lynx watched as the MudWing selected several containers with expert quickness and brought them back to her workspace. "Rub this under your nose," she told Hailstorm, thrusting a solution into his claws. He took it, looking dumbfounded, and inspected it as she turned away to prepare another medicine.

"You should do what she said," Lynx offered when Hailstorm turned his bewildered expression on her.

The IceWing prince unscrewed the lid of the jar and peered inside. A moment later, he jerked backward as though it had punched him in the face, his snout wrinkled and his eyes watering up.

"What's wrong?" Lynx gasped, not sure whether to feel concerned or laugh.

"It smells awful!" Hailstorm choked out.

Mayfly turned around and snorted. "Let me do it," she said impatiently, coming over and snatching the jar from him. She scooped out a generous amount of the pasty substance and slathered it on Hailstorm's snout. The prince flinched and grimaced, but didn't complain.

His expression made it very difficult for Lynx not to laugh. She turned to face Snowfall, assuming that her friend would share her amusement, but the other dragonet was rubbing her temples and staring off into space. _I hope she's all right,_ Lynx thought worriedly. Like Hailstorm, the princess looked flushed, but Lynx hoped it was just the heat.

Mayfly moved on to treat/torture Hailstorm in a number of other ways, including forcing him to drink a vile-looking syrup. "Now rest," she instructed when she had finished. "Don't get up for more than a few minutes at a time until I tell you to."

"With all due respect, ma'am, we can't stay here long," Lynx said apologetically. She had a feeling she was laying the manners on a little thick, but she supposed it was better to be overly polite than not polite enough. "And we're only visitors in town. We don't have anywhere to stay."

"I have a few rooms in the back for patients to stay in," Mayfly said. She gestured to Lynx and Snowfall. "You two can share, but try to stay away from your other friend. What he has looks contagious." She turned to Hailstorm. "Coughing seems inevitable with what you have, but when the urge takes you, try to cover it with your wing or your arm. It might seem gross, but letting all those germs out directly into the air is going to get everyone else sick."

Hailstorm glanced at the other two, clearly alarmed. Lynx shared his worry. None of the IceWings were experienced enough with disease to know how to keep it from spreading. The dragons back in the Ice Kingdom could probably save a lot of lives with that knowledge.

 _Should we go back and tell them that?_ Lynx wondered. _I don't want anyone to die if there's something I can do about it. Then again, if I head home now, there's no one out in Pyrrhia looking for a cure. Stopping the spread of the disease isn't going to help those who are already sick._

Indecisiveness was a terrible thing. No matter what she picked, she would endlessly worry that she was choosing the wrong course of action.

Lynx snapped out of her thoughts when she realized everyone was looking at her. Mayfly was expecting a response and the other two IceWings were expecting her to speak for them. She cleared her throat. "Thank you so much for your help," she said, genuinely grateful. "How much will the treatment cost?"

Mayfly looked at her as though she were crazy. "Nobody pays for treatment here," she scoffed. "What do you take me for? Everyone gets the medical help they need. No matter how poor or disrespectful they are," she added, shooting a pointed look at Hailstorm.

"Then how do you keep your business open?" Lynx asked.

"The entire town offers me their services free of charge," the MudWing said. "Not that it's any of your business."

"Oh," Lynx said, somewhat taken aback. "Okay."

Mayfly gave her an odd look, as though Lynx was a harmless garden snake she had been treating like a dragonbite viper and she had only now realized her mistake. "Well," she said, "if you're in a hurry, you should move along. Get going to those rooms."

"Right," Lynx said, moving toward the doorway at the back of the shop. "Thanks again."

If the MudWing replied, she didn't hear it. The three ice dragons made their way down a narrow corridor lined with doors, heading for the last few, which were ajar. A quick peek in each of them told Lynx that they were more or less identical.

"I don't think splitting up is a good idea," Snowfall hissed quietly. "If anything happens, we won't be able to protect Hailstorm if he's in another room."

"I don't want to get the two of you sick," Hailstorm protested. "And I can take care of myself."

"I don't think Mayfly would let anyone suspicious in here," Lynx said. "So we'd be fairly safe."

Snowfall gave her a scathing look. "Mayfly doesn't exactly seem fond of IceWings. I don't trust her not to stab us in our backs."

"She didn't send us away," Hailstorm said uncertainly. "Wouldn't that have been a better way to hurt us?"

"Yes," Lynx agreed. "I think we need shelter and rest, and she's offered us both, if a bit reluctantly. We should accept her generosity and not complain."

The princess still didn't look convinced. Lynx let out a sigh. "I'll keep watch for a while, if that makes you feel any better," she said. "Though I'll have to sleep eventually, so I'm not sure there's much of a point."

"All right," Snowfall said reluctantly.

They made sure Hailstorm was settled comfortably in the other room before they went to their own. Snowfall curled up in the bed closer to the window on the far side of the room, leaving Lynx to keep watch by the open door. Though it was still hot, it was much better in here than it was outside in the direct sunlight. When the wind blew, it was almost comfortable.

"Good night, Lynx," Snowfall said quietly, despite the fact that the sun was still burning high in the sky.

The speckled dragonet stifled a laugh. "Good night, Snowfall."

It wasn't long before the princess's breathing slowed into the rhythm of sleep. Lynx found that it was hard to keep her eyes open; exhaustion and the heat were taking their toll. Every time her eyes drifted shut, she started to drift off, and she had to snap herself awake.

She really did try, but there was only so much she could do. Within an hour, she was fast asleep.

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 **A/N: Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review. I really appreciate feedback; it keeps me motivated and helps me figure out what I should include more or less of in my writing. Thank you for your support!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I can't believe it's been almost seven months since the last time I updated this story! I've been incredibly busy lately and haven't really touched my FFN account in quite a while, but it's a new year and I'm hoping to get back into writing. Hopefully my readers haven't all disappeared or lost interest while I was away.**

 **I'm planning to continue _Wings of Spirit_ as well, but I wanted to reread everything I've written for these stories up until this point to try to keep their styles and narratives as consistent as possible, and this one is a lot shorter than _WoS_ (so you can see why I started here). **

**I'm going to assume that most of you have read _Darkness of Dragons_ by now, and can obviously tell that my predictions were nowhere near accurate. Because _The Heart Brings You Hope_ already contradicts the canon completely, I'm just going to continue writing this fanfiction the way I planned it. As a result, this story totally ignores the events of Book 10.**

 **I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire.**

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Chapter Five

When Lynx awoke, the room was dark and the air was pleasantly cool. For a moment, she glanced around the small room with its dark brown walls and dusty floor and had no idea where she was. Then the events of the previous day came rushing back to her; leaving her home behind, flying through the desert heat over miles of sand and stone, and meeting a MudWing who was smarter when it came to medicine than she and her friends were combined.

She sat up, yawning, and stretched out her stiff limbs, feeling very much refreshed by her sleep. A glance out the window told her that it was late evening; the sky was a beautiful shade of deep blue and the sun had disappeared, leaving a line of red on the horizon as a parting gift.

 _That should making traveling a lot easier,_ Lynx thought. _Hopefully we'll be able to make it halfway through the Claws of the Clouds Mountains before the sun rises again and brings the heat with it._

"Snowfall?" she whispered, turning toward the other dragonet. But there was no response. _She must be still asleep._ Lynx considered waking her friend, telling her that it was time to go, but the look on Snowfall's face stopped her. For the first time since the plague had started, there was no tension or worry in the princess's expression. Lost in her dreams, she looked completely and utterly peaceful.

 _I should let her rest a little longer,_ Lynx decided. She got to her feet and moved across the hall, peering into Hailstorm's room to check on him. He, too, was asleep. There were still a few shadows under his eyes, but his scales seemed a little less flushed and his breathing sounded more even than it had the previous day. _Seems like Mayfly's medicine is really helping. I hope he appreciates it._

The speckled dragonet considered going back to sleep for a while, but she felt full of energy, and the idea of trying to stay still long enough to doze off made her feel jittery. So she headed back down the hall toward Mayfly's workshop, glad the dirt floor muffled the sounds of her footsteps enough that she didn't have to worry about disturbing her friends.

Upon entering the larger room, she quickly realized that the shop was empty. Lynx felt a twinge of disappointment. She'd been hoping to talk to Mayfly for a while, hear the subtle differences in the way she spoke, maybe ask her a little bit about MudWing culture. But the dark brown dragon wasn't there, and she didn't seem to have left anything behind to tell the IceWings where she had gone or when she was coming back. Lynx expected that they wouldn't see her again anytime soon.

 _That's a shame. I wanted to see if I could befriend her._

Lynx wandered around the room for a few minutes, examining some of the MudWing's herb jars while being careful not to touch them. She didn't want to knock anything to the floor accidentally and have to explain the mess when Mayfly got back. To her surprise (though it made sense when she thought about it), they weren't made of ice, but of some other clear substance that shone in the dim lighting and didn't fog up in the heat. _This is so weird,_ the IceWing thought, fascinated. _I have no idea what these are._ Half of her wanted to touch them to see what they felt like, but she didn't want to risk breaking them, so she reluctantly drew away and headed for the exit.

To her relief, Mayfly hadn't locked the door; it swung open easily at her touch. The streets were much quieter and emptier now than they had been during the day. At first, Lynx thought it was because everyone had already closed up shop for the night and gone to sleep. But then her ears caught the first few strains of music in the distance, and her feet automatically took her in the direction of the sounds.

It was amazing how even walking down a street could feel much different than it did at home. Here, the road was made of stone; it was cool and smooth beneath her talons, but not nearly as cold as the frozen floors in her own kingdom. And she didn't slip at all when she walked. At first her talons tightened reflexively every time they hit the ground, used to having to grip the ice, but soon she began to adjust to the dry texture of the rock that seemed to cling to her claws without her even trying.

 _This is so odd,_ Lynx thought. _I feel like I'm in a dream._

The music led her to one of the bridges, where a crowd was beginning to gather. Dragons of all colors milled about, chatting and laughing, their eyes bright. Their excitement was contagious. Even without knowing what was going on, the anticipation in the air filled Lynx with the most wonderful feeling of exhilaration.

She hung back at first, observing the congregation from a distance. They formed a wide circle at the center of the bridge, which was wide enough to build a house on. Their heads blocked her view of what they were looking at, but the murmurs and laughter rippling through the crowd told her that it was interesting. It sounded like the music was coming from there.

"Looking for someone?" inquired a voice from behind her. Lynx turned around to see a tall, dusty-yellow dragon standing a few feet away. His eyes glittered like black jewels, startlingly dark against his pale scales. _So that's a SandWing,_ she thought, intrigued.

"No," she said, answering his question. "I'm just… a spectator, I guess."

The SandWing tilted his head to one side, regarding her thoughtfully. "I bet you're curious about what's going on."

"I am, actually," she said, surprised that he'd been able to read her so well. "What exactly is all this?"

"It's a full moon festival," the other dragon replied. "It's traditionally a SandWing custom, but these days dragons from any tribe like to participate. We dance, we sing, we play. Anything that celebrates the beauty of the full moon."

"That's really interesting," Lynx said. "I never would have guessed that desert dragons had some special connection with the moons. I would have thought that was more of a NightWing thing. You know, with their living among the night sky and all."

She was always careful to keep her tone neutral when it came to the dark dragons. She didn't hate them on principal the way many of her fellow IceWings did, but she had to admit it was a little harder to know what to think of them than the other tribes. In her mind, SandWings and MudWings and the rest were just dragons from different places. NightWings, though, were something else entirely.

She supposed that hearing enough horror stories and legends about the star-speckled dragons had made them into something more than dragons for her tribe, akin to monsters or evil deities. Reading scrolls about their history and customs could change her rational thoughts about them, but her upbringing had left a deep impression that wasn't easy to shake. _Guess I'm still a little wary of them,_ Lynx thought ruefully. _I need to work on that._

The SandWing glanced up at the dark sky and smiled. "We're actually closer to the stars and the moons than you might think. Since it hardly ever rains in the desert, there aren't any clouds obstructing our view. This is one of the greatest places in all of Pyrrhia for stargazing."

Lynx thought of her own home. The moons looked absolutely beautiful reflecting off the ice, but all that amplified light made it difficult to see the stars. "I've never done any stargazing," she confessed.

"I personally think it's a lot of fun," the SandWing said. He extended one wing in a friendly gesture. "I'm Meerkat, by the way. I know pretty much everyone here, so when I see an unfamiliar face, I know that dragon's not from the area. As a member of the Enclave, I welcome you to this city."

"Thanks," she said, surprised but pleased by the warm welcome. She had no idea what the Enclave was, but it sounded important, which made her feel special. "I'm Lynx. It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Meerkat said, smiling again. The music, which had lulled down over the past few minutes, seemed to be starting up again. The SandWing turned his head in the direction of the noise. "Sounds like the festivities are starting. Want to come?"

Lynx hesitated. The last hints of sunset had disappeared from the horizon and stars had begun to flicker to life in the rapidly darkening sky. Two of the moons were climbing their way up through the heavens, one still full from the night before and the other a waxing gibbous. She knew she should wake her friends soon and leave the town behind, to get as much traveling in as they could while the world was still dark, but…

"Okay," she agreed. Meerkat set off through the crowd, making a path for her as other dragons parted respectfully to let him through. They came to stand in the front row, where they could see several dragons prepping to play their instruments at the edge of the open space. There was a SandWing with a set of drums, a SeaWing (startlingly green against the sea of yellows, browns, and reds) with a violin, and a MudWing with a trumpet.

"Ooh, a band," Lynx said.

"They're excellent musicians," Meerkat remarked. "I've been to several of their performances, and they blow me out of the water every time." He chuckled. "Not that I spend much time in the water. It's an expression my SeaWing friend is fond of."

 _Different idioms for different tribes,_ Lynx mused. _That makes sense._

The music they'd heard so far seemed to be a warm-up; now, as she watched, the SeaWing violinist set his bow to the strings and began to play a song.

The intro to the music was lovely; the green dragon seemed to carve a story out of the silence with each movement of his webbed talons. The beautiful sounds sent chills down Lynx's spine. It was haunting and powerful and breathtakingly beautiful, otherworldly in its difference from IceWing music. She'd never heard anything like it in her life.

Then, as the last of the violin notes rippled off into silence, the SandWing player started a beat on her drums, and the MudWing began a rousing chorus on his horn, making the crowd cheer.

Dragons began to move forward out of the crowd in pairs, taking up positions in the open circle and beginning to dance. Lynx's tail began to tap to the music, which was undeniably catchy. Other dragons began to clap to the beat, helping the dancers move in time.

"What song is this?" she asked, having to shout a little to be heard over the music. "I like it."

"Isn't it good?" Meerkat agreed. "It's called 'Hymn to the Moons' Light'. It's a fan favorite. They play it almost every time."

"I can see why!" Lynx said.

Most of the pairs were dragons from the same tribes, but she caught a glimpse of a SkyWing dancing with a SandWing, and several dragonets from an assortment of tribes making up their own dance together and giggling wildly. Despite the nagging thoughts in the back of her head telling her to go back to Mayfly's house, her talons itched to join in.

"How does this dance go?" the IceWing wondered aloud. "I'm trying to see how everyone else is doing it, but ahh, they're moving too fast!"

"Let me show you," Meerkat said. He took a few steps forward, flicked one wing out to the side, then joined claws and twirled in a circle with an invisible partner. "Then stomp twice, take three steps away, and come back together." He let his wings drop. "Pretty simple, actually."

Lynx laughed. "I can probably mess it up if I try hard enough."

"Come on," the SandWing said, smiling. "Just give it a try. I won't judge."

Even though she barely knew this dragon at all, he was friendly enough that she honestly felt that he meant it. "Okay," she said. "So… step forward, dramatic wing swish, then grab your partner and cling on for dear life," she said, mimicking what Meerkat had shown her.

The SandWing cracked up. "More or less," he laughed.

Lynx grinned. "What comes next? I forgot."

"Stomp twice," Meerkat said, demonstrating. "Take three steps away from your partner… then come back. It gets easier the more you practice."

"Okay," said Lynx.

"Want to give it a try?" Meerkat asked, offering her his wing.

 _Oh, what the heck? When else am I going to get a chance to dance like an idiot in a crowd full of dragons without giving one wolf's fang about who's watching?_

Lynx extended her wing to meet his, and he took her talons in his own, pulling her out into the center of the floor. They stepped in toward each other, flourishing their wings and whirling each other around until Lynx was laughing. It was such a silly dance compared to the ones she'd been taught at home, but that was what made it fun, and she loved it. She stumbled a bit over Meerkat's talons as she tried to remember the next steps, but within a few rounds she had it memorized, and whirling with the horn and stomping with the drums filled her with exuberance.

After a while, they broke apart, breathing hard and laughing. "I don't know about you, but I need a chance to catch my breath," said Meerkat, his eyes glittering with mirth. "Maybe we could get something to drink?"

"Yeah, me too," said Lynx. "And sure."

"They have cactus juice," said the SandWing. "It's very good."

"I've never tried some," Lynx said. "But I'd love to."

They made their way to the drinks stand, which was run by a freckled SandWing. Lynx looked at the markings on the desert dragon's snout and felt a sense of kinship. "Hey, Meerkat!" the vendor called out in greeting as they approached. "What can I get for you?"

"Good to see you, Shrew," said Meerkat. "Two cactus juices, please. I'll pay."

"Sure," the other SandWing said, pouring bright green liquid into two ceramic mugs. She slid them across the table to her customers and took the coins Meerkat was offering. "Enjoy!"

"Thanks," Lynx said, smiling. "And thanks for getting this for me," she added to Meerkat, taking a sip from the mug. Flavor exploded across her tongue. "Whoa," she said, blinking. "That is… completely unlike anything I have ever tasted before."

Meerkat smiled. "I've been told by merchants that the flavor is described as 'fruity' by the rainforest dragons. They eat a lot more berries, so it makes sense that they have a word for it. I've always just called it 'cactus flavored'."

"It's so… bright," Lynx said. "I didn't know a flavor could be bright."

"Do you like it?" the SandWing asked.

Lynx took another sip, letting it linger on her tongue. "I do," she decided.

"I'm glad," said Meerkat. He let his gaze travel around the festival. "Oh! See those easels set up at the side of the bridge?" he asked, pointing with one talon. Lynx followed his line of sight and nodded. "Those are artists. At celebrations like these, they'll paint a portrait of you for a small sum. Some will do a serious piece, while others will make a caricature."

"That's really cool!" Lynx said.

"Want to go see?" Meerkat asked. "If you're going to participate in a moon festival, you might as well get the full experience."

The night was still young, so the IceWing agreed, following her companion around the edges of the crowd to the artists' stations. They stopped by a vibrant red SkyWing, who was adding the finishing touches to a painting of the moonlight reflecting off the river. As their shadows fell across her palette, she looked up and broke into a wide grin. "Meerkat!" she cried. "Great to see you, old friend!"

Lynx studied the red dragon up close. Even when they were closed, her wings looked massive; they were so long that they reached the ground and pooled at her sides. Her horns were also long, and unlike an IceWing's, they curved into gentle waves, ending with the pointed tips angled in slightly toward each other. But her eyes were possibly the most astonishing feature of all. Though Lynx had known the irises would be a lighter color than either a SandWing's or a MudWing's, the yellow was startlingly pale against the vividness of her scales. _Kind of the opposite of Meerkat's,_ the IceWing noted.

"Hey, Andesine," Meerkat said, clasping the SkyWing's talons in his own. "It's nice to see you, too." He gestured to Lynx with one wing. "This is Lynx, and she's never been to a moon festival before, so I thought she should get to see an artist at work. Would you mind if we watched you paint?"

"Not at all," said Andesine, grinning. She turned to Lynx. "If you're with Meerkat, you must be a decent soul. I'll tell ya what. How about I paint a nice portrait for you? I'll give you a discount."

"Really?" Lynx asked, taken aback.

Andesine winked at her. "Artists in this town are free to charge whatever they see fit for their work. The more I want to do a piece, the less I'm gonna charge for it. I just so happen to feel like paintin' a picture of you. You don't see a lot of IceWings around here, so tryna replicate those shiny white scales would be a welcome challenge. And I gotta say, those blue spots of yours are mighty pretty. So whaddya say?"

"Okay," Lynx said, feeling her face grow warm. "Thank you very much."

"No problem. Stand right there, at the edge of the bridge," Andesine said, gesturing with one, paint-stained claw. "Gotta get the moons in the background. And chin up, so I can see your face."

Lynx obliged. She watched the SkyWing's paintbrush dance over the canvas, creating streaks of white and blue. Andesine's eyes focused intently on the IceWing's face, then flicked over to the painting, then back to her subject. Every glance produced a new scattering of fine detail on the rough sketch of a dragon, until at last, the SkyWing sat back with a sigh of satisfaction.

"Okay, darlin', it's finished," Andesine said. "You wanna come see how it turned out?"

Lynx crossed the space between them and gasped. The painting was stunning in its complexity. Although the lines weren't perfectly precise, there was a certain beauty in the sketched style, and the shine of the moonlight off her scales was conveyed in vivid detail. The spattering of blue scales across her snout looked like sapphires, and the contrast between the whiteness of her face and the navy blue of the sky made for quite an interesting piece.

"Three moons," she breathed. "You made me look so pretty."

"Nah, that's your own natural charm," Andesine said. "Though I will say, I'm mighty pleased with how the shininess turned out."

"Thank you so much," Lynx said.

"You're welcome," the SkyWing said with a grin. "My pleasure."

Lynx paid the artist for the portrait. The paint was still too wet to put it into her satchel, so she held it in her claws and marveled at it for a while longer. She still couldn't believe how beautiful it had turned out.

Unfortunately, the moons were now high in the sky, and Lynx knew it was time to head back. "Thank you so much for tonight," she told Meerkat. "I really enjoyed myself. But my friends and I were only stopping here for a short visit, so I'd really better go."

"Where are you headed, if you don't mind my asking?" the SandWing said.

"We're going to Jade Mountain," Lynx said. "Speaking of which, do you know anyone who could give us more precise directions than 'keeping heading south'?" She smiled a bit sheepishly. "We didn't really prepare as well as we should have before we set out, so I'm afraid we're not entirely sure how to get there."

"Oh, that's no trouble at all," said Meerkat. They were passing a stand that was giving out free souvenirs; Meerkat whisked a small map off the counter and spread it out in front of Lynx. She noticed that there was an X marking Possibility's location on the map, which was presumably meant to be a reminder of the time you had there. "See this mountain?" the SandWing asked, tapping a landmark near the bottom of the map. "That's Jade Mountain. If you 'keep heading south', you actually should make it there without much of a problem. It's pretty much right between the Sky and Sand Kingdoms, too, so you shouldn't need special permission to cross any lands."

"Okay," Lynx said. "Thank you so much."

"You're very welcome," Meerkat said. "Are your friends here at the festival too?"

"No, neither of them were really feeling well," she replied, deciding to go with a simplified version of the story for the sake of both time and privacy. "We were staying at Mayfly's place," she added, figuring that, since he did seem to know everyone, he would know what she was talking about. "I don't know if they'll be ready to go when I get back, but I don't want to keep them waiting."

"Mayfly's is a bit far," Meerkat said. "Do you want me to walk you back?"

If she was back in her own kingdom, she would have politely declined, but she didn't have to worry about maintaining an independent façade here, and she had to admit she wasn't entirely sure which way she had come. "If you don't mind, that would be very nice of you," she agreed.

Meerkat smiled and led her away from the festival. As they made their way down the winding cobblestone streets, the sounds of music and laughter gradually faded, until they were nothing but background noise. The quiet was almost heavy against Lynx's ears after spending so much time surrounded by loud sounds. That was another thing that was unfamiliar about being away from home; there was no cold air or snow to muffle every note and whisper, so noises carried farther and sounded louder than she was used to.

"I had a lot of fun tonight," Meerkat said. "I'm sure you've heard this many times before, but you're delightful company. If you're ever passing through the area again, don't be afraid to stop by and say hello."

"Aw, that's so sweet," Lynx said, smiling. "I'll be sure to talk my friends into stopping on our way home. Maybe there'll be another festival going on and they'll get to join in, too."

"If you time it right," Meerkat laughed.

Before she knew it, they were back at Mayfly's house. Snowfall was waiting outside, pacing back and forth with her tail lashing. She caught sight of Lynx and stormed over.

"Where have you been?" she demanded.

 _Oops,_ Lynx thought. "I couldn't sleep, so I decided to explore the town a bit," she said. "I guess I got a little caught up in it all."

Snowfall's eyes flicked over Meerkat's face, then returned to Lynx's. "I suppose it's all right," she grumbled. "Hailstorm just woke up a few minutes ago, so it isn't like we were really ready to leave. But next time, leave a note before you wander off! I thought you got kidnapped or something."

"It's a safe neighborhood," said Meerkat.

"Whatever," Snowfall snapped.

Lynx turned to the SandWing. "Sorry about that," she said, ignoring Snowfall's angry huff. "Thanks again for showing me around town and everything. It was really great to meet you."

"Same to you, Lynx," said Meerkat, smiling. "Safe travels. I hope you enjoy your time at Jade Mountain."

The SandWing turned and disappeared into the darkness of the night.

"Well," said Snowfall. "That was interesting."

"What do you mean?" Lynx asked, puzzled. She certainly found meeting new dragons interesting, but she doubted Snowfall shared that sentiment.

The princess snorted. "Don't tell me you honestly didn't notice."

"Didn't notice what?" Lynx prompted.

Snowfall rolled her eyes, looking half-exasperated and half-amused. "That SandWing obviously had a crush on you."

"What? No he didn't!" the speckled dragon protested. "What are you talking about?"

"Offering to show you around, remembering your name, asking where you're going, walking you home?" Snowfall said. "Well, back to where you're staying, at any rate. He definitely likes you."

 _And he did want me to come back, too,_ Lynx realized. _She might be right._ She stared off into the darkened streets. "Now I feel bad."

"Why?" her friend asked. "No doubt you were way nicer to him than necessary anyway."

"Because I didn't think of him that way at all," said Lynx. "Sure, he was really nice, and I liked him, but… not like that."

"Well, you didn't lead him on, did you?" Snowfall asked.

"I don't think so," Lynx said. "I mean, I was friendly toward him, but…"

 _I wasn't paying any attention whatsoever to possible signs of romantic attraction. Because I wasn't attracted to him that way at all. I mean, I guess he was kind of good-looking if I really think about it… not that I'm the best judge of masculine beauty. But I didn't think he was flirting with me, and I definitely wasn't flirting with him intentionally. I hope he didn't take it that way._

"Let it go," Snowfall said. "I'm sure you didn't do anything to hurt his feelings. And even if you did, it doesn't really matter, because you're way too good for him anyway."

"Snowfall!" said Lynx.

"Well, it's true," her friend said. "Anyway, come on. Let's get Hailstorm and be on our way."

"Okay," Lynx said, trailing behind absentmindedly as the princess headed back into the building. She glanced briefly at the painting in her talons, testing it with a quick tap to see if it was dry. Satisfied that it wasn't going to smear, she slipped it and the map into her satchel. Thankfully, the canvas was just small enough to fit inside her bag.

She shook her head, not entirely sure what she was feeling. _Definitely surprised by everything that's happened tonight. Still energized by the dancing and the laughter and the music. Maybe a little sad that I can't stay longer, if I'm being perfectly honest with myself. And relieved to be one step closer to reaching our destination? Probably a mix of all those and about three hundred other things._

But Lynx knew one thing for certain: between the souvenirs she'd gotten and the dragons she'd met, this night and this place were definitely something she was going to remember.

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you thought of this chapter. There's a little hint in here about where this story is going, and I'm curious to know if anyone caught it. I appreciate any and all feedback, especially constructive criticism. And if you notice any typos, please let me know; I always proofread, but some mistakes slip past my notice. Hopefully I'll be back to post again soon!**

 **-Blaze**


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